All Countries Must Stop Overproduction Of Steel, Chinese Leader Tells May

All Countries Must Stop Overproduction Of Steel, Chinese Leader Tells May

China's president has insisted all countries must stop overproducing steel after being urged by Theresa May to stem the supplies that have wreaked havoc on world markets.

The Prime Minister told Xi Jinping she wanted to see "more activity" to tackle the problem during a 30-minute meeting on the margins of the G20.

The UK's steel industry was left devastated when China began dumping steel, leaving the market flooded.

Mr Xi told the PM all countries must take "concerted action" to deal with overproduction, a UK government official said.

In the "very constructive" meeting, the premier hailed the "golden era" of relations between China and the UK and said an increase in investment from his nation since the Brexit vote showed its confidence in Britain.

Mrs May also called on the president to use China's influence to put "pressure" on Pyongyang to stop its missile testing programme following North Korea's latest launch.

Mrs May also raised the failure to deal with steel dumping at a meeting with all G20 leaders, saying the group had failed to deliver on previous pledges to take action.

She said: "I believe that not only do we have to talk the language of free and fair trade, we have to act on it to.

"So, I hope we can hold a global forum on steel capacity at ministerial level before the end of the year."

Mrs May also called for reforms to the World Trade Organisation to speed up its system of dealing with disputes, warning the lengthy process was putting healthy companies out of business.

Shadow steel minister Gill Furniss said: "This Government has not done enough to support the British steel industry.

"We need to guard against the practice of dumping.

"And to that end, Labour plans to adopt many of the recommendations of the Steel APPG (all-party parliamentary group) report, including supporting British steel through public procurement where possible, stopping dumping and growing supply chains."

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